kitchen tool for chopping

BoardsMember

I'm looking for suggestions on how to speed up mewl preparation time. When preparing food for lots of people, having to chop large volumes of onions, lemon grass, garlic, herbs etc, especially when they need to be finely chopped, can take so long. Not to mention that I'm hopeless at sharpening knives.and great at slicing my fingers open.

Sooo...... Is there anything else out there that will do a satisfactory job at chopping instead of me??!! I have vague recollection of seeing enthusiastic presenters on infomercials but if I wss to buy something for this it would want to be very good

dmc17

I used a Nicer Dicer for a long time and found it great for chopping things.
It gets a lot of bad reviews on Amazon but I've found it quite useful and long as you're realistic with it. It's great for stews and curries as all the carrots, potatoes, peppers etc are all the same size.

Gloomtastic!

I always imagine slices of finger when I see those things. :eek:

I used to have one of these but they made a lot of noise
http://m.aliexpress.com/item/745646875.html?tracelog=wwwdetail2mobilesitedetail Wife threw it away when I wasn't looking.

Gotta say learning to chop like a pro with a good sharp knife is the easiest option I've found. Have a look on YouTube for some tutor videos.

kylith

I use a mandolin for slicing. You have to mind your fingers though!

BoardsMember

Me and a mandolin should not be in the same county....I'm a disaster with a knife, I need something safe!!

Morag

Get a food processor which has a blade/slicing attachment. I've a multi chef and use it for doing batches of onion, cucumber, even tomatos when we have a bunch of people over for salads and bbq or when making large batches of meals.

Something like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMtkk3D-EwE

dmc17

One of these might be useful for you too. Can't really go wrong for the price either.

Alun

For chopping, just get some decent knives and learn some knife skills. All those gadgets hack whatever it is into varying sized lumps rather than actually chop. For slicing, a mandolin (and a ready supply of plasters!) is the bees knees.

stimpson

+1 for a really sharp knife and some practice. A sharp knife is safer than a dull one as you don't need to use much pressure to push it through the food. I have an ultra sharp Japanese Santoku knife (think 17 degree blade angle as opposed to 25 degree on a western knife). The only time I ever cut myself with it was when taking it out of the packaging!

Always keep the knife vertical and always keep your fingers out of the plane the knife is slicing on (keep the tips of your fingers vertical so they are parallel to the knife, with a claw like grip). Start slowly, building up speed as you practice.

Alton Brown did instructional videos for Shun which are very good - worth a look:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKgGlpe45T0

Deise Musashi

Not to mention that I'm hopeless at sharpening knives.and great at slicing my fingers open.

I can sharpen your knives for you, not so good at stopping you chopping bits off...

Drop me a message if you need a blade sharpening.

paulbok

dmc17 wrote: »

One of these might be useful for you too. Can't really go wrong for the price either.

Cannot recommend one of these enough if you do a lot of onion, garlic, chilli, ginger & herb chopping ( esp for asian food). just rougly chop and put into this and twist like mad for a minute and you will have a finely chopped mix.

I've used the mentioned dicers/ baton cutters and also good for stir fry ingredients.
chopping/slicing blades on a processor also good if you already have it out or have a lot to do.